The All India Lawyers Association for Justice (AILAJ) organized a meeting in Patna on 20 February attended by lawyers and law students from various Districts of Bihar. AILAJ National Convener Clifton D Rozario attended the meet and said that ever since its inception AILAJ has been at the forefront of concern for the legal fraternity and protecting their interests. The Covid pandemic and lockdown had snatched away the livelihood of lawyers and people connected with the legal fraternity on a large scale. As State governments as well as the Bar Council and Bar Association completely ignored the plight of the legal fraternity, AILAJ raised its voice to protect their livelihood and their interests and ran a campaign for financial aid for them.
He further said that today the country's Constitution is under attack and governments are throwing constitutional morality to the winds and making arbitrary laws. People's rights are being cut down. AILAJ is committed to carry forward the legacy of the freedom struggle and protect the Constitution. AILAJ will actively fight against the Hindutva fascist agenda and intensify the struggle against corporate loot and communal divisiveness.
AILAJ decided to send a fact-finding team to Belaganj in Gaya District where the police committed illegal and inhuman brutalities against women from backward communities. Condemning the exclusion of Muslim women from education under the Hijab ban in Karnataka, a signature campaign in favour of hijab-wearing girl students will be organized among the legal fraternity in Bihar.
Comrade Clifton D Rozario also attended the meeting organized to observe the 24th anniversary of the police brutality perpetrated in Pasaur (Bhojpur) on 21 February 1998. Many people died in this brutal police repression, and people continued to die or became handicapped and helpless in its aftermath. 54 people have died so far and their kin are still awaiting justice.
Law students Ankit Kumar, Raviranjan Kumar and Divyam Kumar threw light on the pathetic condition of law studies in Bihar and said that seats for law courses in all colleges have been cut down by half this time. Law students in Bihar who have come after doing their Inter or legal studies from outside are being denied scholarships. Reservation is not being implemented in registration of students. AILAJ will raise these issues and bring out a white paper on the poor state of legal education in Bihar.
Manmohan, Amit Kumar Bunty, Ajay Kumar, Suman Sharma, Dharmveer Kumar, Vishwanath Sharan Singh, Om Prakash Singh and other lawyers also spoke at the meeting which was presided over by Advocate Krishna Prasad.
